A little bit about myself

Summer is a postdoctoral research scientist at the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago, IL. They recently earned their PhD in Plant Biology from the Department of Plant Biology at the University of Georgia, under the mentorship of Dr. Jim Leebens-Mack and Dr. Tati Russo-Tait.

Originally from Covina, CA, she earned a bachelor’s degree in Biology from California State Polytechnic University, Pomona. During undergrad, she was mentored through numerous pipeline programs that aim to increase the representation of underrepresented minorities in STEM (Cal Poly's SEES program, NIH-RISE, CSU-LSAMP, the Leadership Alliance). After undergraduate, she was a research technician in the Grotewold Lab at Michigan State University as a part of the Success in Graduate Education (SiGuE) post-baccalaureate research program.

My PhD Research

  • Geraniaceae comparative genomics

  • Phylogenomics of the genus Geranium

  • Critical qualitative examination of how Latinas grapple with racial ideology in Engineering

Outreach

Throughout my undergraduate and graduate education, I have led and been involved with several organizations and efforts that center students of color in STEM. These include affinity spaces for queer students & students of color in STEM, targeted recruitment efforts, and bioinformatics training!

Grad school resources

There are several free, online resources for students learning how to navigate graduate school applications that I think are super valuable. These resources helped me a ton in my own process, hopefully, you might find them to be helpful too!